Tuesday, 12 May 2015

11th May 2015 ... New moth for garden + a bumper night.

I'll start by thanking Mr Ian Woiwood.
After reading his post on Beds Moth group Facebook on 3rd May regarding the use of a pheromone lure to successfully attract a male Emperor Moth to his garden, I was prompted to get on to Anglia Leps and order one.
I made a net bag and hung it on the trellis fence at 10.00 am. where it sat all day until 16.45 pm. when a male Emperor turned up.
This is the first record for the garden and the lure has now gone into the freezer until next April.
I have tried a couple of times to "assemble" newly hatched female Emperors without success, mainly due to adverse weather conditions at the time of the hatching in 2013/14
By using a lure there's no waiting for a hatch and you can pick your weather, much easier.

Saturnia pavonia, Emperor Moth (male)

A sunny spot on the trellis fence, with the lure in a homemade net bag

A good day was followed by an equally good evening, warm, dry, maybe a tad too breezy at times for the micro moths, but 28 species were recorded with a possible 29 pending a Pug I.D.
The catch:-
11th May, warm, breezy, 9.9 degC min.
0648 Endrosis sarcitrella, 3
0697 Agonopterix arenella, 1
0892 Mompha subbistrigella, 3
0925 Phtheochroa rugosana, 1, year first

3 comments:

83 Species already! Quieten down over there :pWhat's happened to Matt, is he actually still stuck on 45 species? Surely not hehe.Great catch and congrats on the Emperor.I shall be at Hexton Chalk Pit tomorrow night, wish me luck!CheersBen

Good luck at Hexton . Matt is probably on around 100 by now, he never updates on blogger these days. That E. marginana I posted may well be a small "gentianaeana", I'm keeping it for Mr M... I could check the hindwing but if it's a female it would be a waste of time.